Doug O'Halloran

President, UFCW Local 401

Born in Prince Edward Island and raised in Lethbridge, Doug O’Halloran became active with his union while working with the Canada Dressed Meats/Burn Meat Packers in 1973. Doug served as his Local President from 1973 to 1982. He also served a four-year period as President of the Lethbridge and District Labour Council and a similar period on the Executive of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Doug brings a strong commitment to social justice to his work as a union leader -- he currently serves as International Vice President of the UFCW International Union and has been President of UFCW Local 401 since 1989.

Alberta's first ever NDP government, have refreshingly opened the door to hear from the public; including working people, labour law professionals from all sides, and business stakeholders as they begin the process of updating the 30-year-old Employment Standards and Labour Relations Codes.

The NDP needs a leader who is rational and has an abundance of common sense and knowledge about what they are talking about. We need a leader that everyday workers can believe in. This person is not Peter Julian.

Despite my frustration around the outcome of our recent NDP convention, I'm prepared to take Avi Lewis at face value when he says that he didn't expect his Leap Manifesto to be so explosive. And I'd like to try explaining the reaction from many Alberta New Democrats so that Mr. Lewis has a better sense of the road ahead.

She gets that this is about more than just politics. Progress on energy projects isn't going to be achieved through grandstanding. If that were the case, we would have seen more success from the efforts of our previous provincial and federal governments.

The issue is staring our Prime Minister square in the face and a just and equitable solution is being proposed from all sides. And yet, Harper has waived off the need for a national inquiry, claiming that his government intends to treat Fontaine's death as a crime and not a "sociological phenomenon."

Rampant entitlement and disregard for the rules are part and parcel of Alberta's conservative political class. What's special about the Redford stories is only that she is getting caught and called out on her bad behavior.

The notion that the Rana Plaza factory collapse came out of the blue and took everyone by surprise is sheer fiction. The companies who sell these clothes have known for a long time that there are serious problems with the working conditions in the factories they use. But talk about addressing those issues is about as cheap as the clothing they sell.

I would remind those people that for all the supposed "dignity" of Ms. Redford's departure, she remains a premier who her broke promises to Albertans from day one, slashed funding to social programs on which many vulnerable Albertans rely, and launched the most vicious attack on Alberta's working families in the province's history.

We're talking about children. 741 children. Let's be frank about this situation and call these deaths what they are: unnecessary, preventable, and shameful. To say that no child in a potentially dangerous situation of which our government is aware should ever come to harm is probably unfair. Borrowing a glib, but perhaps apt saying, "things happen." We cannot control the outcomes of every situation of which we're aware.

In December, our union will be releasing the second issue of our magazine, Your Voice. In that issue will be an article providing a month-by-month account of the Redford government's ten biggest bullying moments in 2013.

Stretched, stressed out, and buckling under a scheduling system that was forcing them into the ranks of the working poor, Superstore and Liquorstore employees made the difficult choice to go on strike. Not for outrageous wage increases, but simply for the guarantee of sufficient weekly hours of work to make a decent living.

When looking at the actions of the Alberta government I feel a deep embarrassment. This is not my government. And as they continue to relentlessly and consistently bully and attack those for whom they were elected to work, I am confident in saying that they do not represent the majority of Albertans.